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My work essentially involves brainstorming new bacterial targets for antibiotics, and over the past couple years this idea has crept into my mind. Science stat
by VeninVidiaVicii 5y ago
My work essentially involves brainstorming new bacterial targets for antibiotics, and over the past couple years this idea has crept into my mind.
Science statisticians tend to balk at the placebo effect, and use it as kind of a “zero effect”. But, I can’t help but notice how sometimes a placebo (or more generally a positive attitude) can actually help a patient overcome an illness.
I’ve met enough people suffering from terrible bacterial infections, and from my eye, the most positive people tend to have the best outcomes. Of course, modern science would have my head for any mystical thinking.
- scubakid 5y agoIs it also possible that positivity is physically harder to achieve / less likely to manifest for patients whose systems are compromised in such a way that they can't overcome the infection? We are brain-body systems after all, so to me the causality seems hard to untangle.
- spdionis 5y agoDid the chicken come first or the egg?
- wrp 5y agoYour observation is not at all new. A famous quote from some doctor over a century ago, "Sometimes it's more important who has the disease than what disease the patient has."
- srean 5y agoThis is part of the reason why candidate drugs need to show better outcomes over placebo. Placebo has measurable effects compared to nocebo.
- robocat 5y ago> nocebo Nocebo has measurable negative effects: it is the opposite of the placebo effect. Nocebo is health problems or a worsening of symptoms, solely due to the conscious or subconscious expectation of harm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo Highly relevant to Covid vaccinations because subconsciously a lot of people fear side effects, so perhaps many anecdotal side effects are purely psychosomatic. I think psychosomatic symptoms are still truely harmful: few people can just decide to think themselves better.
- kawera 5y agoFor those like me that know little about the placebo effect, there's a nice episode[1] of the On Being by Krista Tippett podcast where she interviewed Erik Vance on the subject. His book is also very interesting for the uninitiated[2]. [1] https://onbeing.org/programs/erik-vance-the-drugs-inside-your-head/ https://onbeing.org/programs/erik-vance-the-drugs-inside-you... [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32944584-suggestible-you https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32944584-suggestible-you
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]